LOS ANGELES — The wife of Weezer bassist Scott Shriner who was shot by cops then charged with attempted murder was merely trying to protect her kids from an intruder in her own yard, according to her neighbor who said she witnessed the shooting.
The neighbor claimed Los Angeles Police Department officers failed to announce themselves and she couldn’t see them when they opened fire — and cops now more concerned with covering their tracks than catching the real bad guys.
The shocking story saw best-selling author Jillian Shriner, 51, wounded in the shoulder by officers Wednesday as they chased fugitives from a freeway crash through her $2.7 million property.
“It’s not like she didn’t have any reason to have a gun. The guy was there,” said the neighbor who watched a stranger in a “wife beater” hop a fence into Jillian’s yard.
“None of us knew anything. She’s home with her two kids,” the neighbor told The Post, adding that she didn’t notice Jillian was armed but thought she was well within her rights to be.
When “rock-wife” Jillian saw the intruder, “she basically admonished him and said ‘They’re gonna catch you,’” according to the witness, who did not want to be named.
Before either of them knew it, a brigade of cops came creeping up the yard with guns drawn and the bullets were flying.
“I hear about six gunshots in quick succession,” the neighbor said. “It went ba-da-da-da-da… There was just them firing upon her.”
The LAPD did not respond to a request for comment.
The 5-bed, 4-bath home sits back off the road, with a gated entrance to a long driveway. It is surrounded by vegetation — presumably where the fugitive and cops crossed onto the property.
After being wounded, Jillian retreated into her house.
She later came out with her arms raised — alongside her kids’ babysitter, and later even a young boy — and both were forced to lay spread-eagled on the pavement and as heavily-armed cops cuffed them.
Cops said they recovered a 9-mm pistol from the scene.
The drama unfolded after three people fled from a car accident on a nearby highway, with at least one of the suspects making their way into the ritzy neighborhood and trying to blend in the with scene — by stripping down to his boxers and going for a swim.
Responding police claim Jillian came out of her house with a gun in hand and was told “numerous times” to drop it but refused, and that she allegedly pointed the weapon at them and forced them to open fire.
She was later booked on suspicion of attempted murder. She was released from the hospital Wednesday, and then sprung from jail after posting $1 million bond.
But the neighbor who watched it all unfold claimed that cops’ story was hogwash — and that Jillian clearly couldn’t see the officers from where they were standing.
“I don’t know how they’re claiming that she could have seen them that fast,” she said. “If she had been able to see them and ascertain that they were who they said they were, I’m pretty sure she would have dropped the gun.”
“There’s just no reason for it,” she added. “There’s no way that if a police officer — who you can see as a police officer who says to you to drop the gun — that you’re not going to.”
And she thinks police know they messed up.
“That is 100% I think what is happening, and they know it. And they asked me — at one in the morning they were interviewing me. Nobody cared what the suspect looked like. They didn’t give a s**t about that — They said ‘Do you have any video? Did you take video of the shooting? Do you have anything about that?’ I’m like, do you care at all what the guy looks like or anything like that?”
Other neighbors later found a stolen $4,000 Gibson electric guitar — completely unrelated to Weezer — that the fleeing suspects had apparently stashed in a trashcan, but that police didn’t seem interested when they were told.
At least one of the hit-and-run suspects has since been arrested.
Her rock and roll husband — who is supposed to play with Weezer at Coachella this weekend — seemed unfazed by the drama while taking the family’s gaggle of poodles for a walk Thursday.
“She’s alright, thank you for asking,” the 59-year-old told The Post. “See you at Coachella!”